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French Settlement of the Southwest. — Hamilton. 163 

Here of Fort Louis de la Mobile by Pierre LeMoyne Sieur 
d'Iberville and Jean Baptiste LeMoyne Sieur de Bienville." 
At night, in Mobile, a large audience assembled in Tem- 
perance Hall to listen to a varied musical and literary pro- 
gram, including an essay by Miss Adele Batre, herself of 
French extraction, graphically describing the life of the 
colonial French woman. There was also read a prize poem 
written by Miss Annie L. Shillito, a seventeen year old girl 
in Merton Academy, the largest of Mobile's public schools. 
She was the successful competitor for the purse of twenty- 
five dollars offered for a metrical commemoration of the 
occasion. 



AN EARLY DECISION ON IMPERIALISM.^ 

By David Y. Thomas. 

Not every layman knows that the territory east of the 
Mississippi River and south of the thirty-first degree of 
north latitude eastward to the Perdido River was claimed 
by the United States as a part of the Louisiana Purchase, 
but was actually acquired by conquest, or, to put it more 
mildly, by "occupation" upon the lapse of the sovereignty 
of Spain. The westernmost part was secured in this way in 
1810, when the inhabitants declared their independence, 
raised their own flag, and asked to be taken into the fold 
of the Union. May 14, 1812, Congress passed an act de- 
claring that Mobile and its environs, then in the possession 
of Spain, should be regarded as a part of the Mississippi 
Territory, should be entitled to a representative in the leg- 
islature of said Territory, and subject to the laws of the 
United States. 

A little more than a month before this the embargo act, 
forbidding American vessels to land goods at foreign ports, 
had been passed and was still in force. Now, it so hap- 
pened that the schooner Maria, which had sailed from New 
Orleans, touched at Mobile, May 15, and then came on to 
Fort Stoddart, where she was seized for violating the em- 
bargo. Only one part of the defence — that the embargo 
had not been violated, since Mobile was a domestic port, 
though the act of Congress so declaring it was, of course, 
not known at the time of the alleged violation — concerns 
us here. 

The question to be decided, said Judge Toulmin, of the 
Mississippi Territory, vested with the powers of a judge of 

^ U. S. vs. Schooner Maria, Nile's Weekly Register, Vol. III., 
181 ff. 1 



An Early Decision on Imperialism. — Thomas. 165 

the United States, was whether Mobile was a foreign place 
on May 15, or was to all intents and purposes an append- 
age of the United States. On a mere perusal of the law 
it did not seem possible for such a question to arise, but the 
case was complicated by the fact that a foreign govern- 
ment claimed and exercised jurisdiction over said port. 
"The question then is, what constitutes a country foreign 
or domestic? 

"If it be nothing but occupancy by military force, no 
part of the district added by Congress to the Mississippi 
territory, but the sand hills of the pass of Christianne, is 
comprehended within the hmits of the American republic. 
If it be the exercise of jurisdiction, then the limits of our 
territory will vary with the times, and the energy of Amer- 
ican magistrates, or the vigor of conflicting authorities, 
will alone describe our national boundaries. If it be the 
exercise of the constituent privilege, in electing members 
to the representative assembly, it will then depend on the 
fears and hopes — upon the timidity and courage — upon 
the slavish submission or manly independence of private 
individuals. 

"But if it be the law, then have we a plain and definite 
Hne of demarkation. The national will is the basis of our 
pretensions ; and the national energies are the guarantee 
of their integrity." 

The Judge then recited that his situation was perplex- 
ing and painful, since his decision seemed to involve a 
question of war and peace, a matter more properly resting 
with other departments of the government. But the ques- 
tion whether Mobile was a foreign place, though merely 
involving the fate of a single vessel under a law already 
expired, depended on general principles which would be 
continually forced upon our attention, and a more proper 
time to settle them could not be found. 

"I must acknowledge that when I find the Congress of 
the United States declaring that a certain portion of ter- 



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Southern History Association. 



ritory described by that body is annexed to the Mississippi 
territory ; that it shall be governed by the laws thereof, and 
entitled to a representative in the general assembly; I feel 
it impossible to say, as an American magistrate, that any 
part of the territory so described is a foreign country. I 
know of no better criterion by which to determine the na- 
tional character of any part of the country, but the supreme 
law of the land. If the 'judges are bound thereby, anything 
in the constitution or laws of any state of the country not- 
withstanding' (Con. U. S., Art. VI.), surely they are bound 
thereby notwithstanding any pretensions set up by an as- 
semblage of individuals professing allegiance, not to an 
American state, but to a foreign power. 

■"On the whole view of the subject, therefore, I cannot 
regard any part of the territory lying east of the Pearl 
river, west of the Perdido, and south of the 31st degree 
of latitude, as having been a foreign country since the 14th 
day of May last. — Judgment, therefore, is given in favor 
of the claimant, and the bond entered into by him is di- 
rected to be cancelled." 

This decision was rendered October 19, 1812. Judge 
Toulmin did not trouble himself with laborious citations, 
but seems to have thought the Constitution and laws of the 
United States sufficient authority, and that he should bow 
with patriotic subserviency to the will of Congress. 



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